At Isengard
by Knight Thunder
Summary: !ABANDONED! The Uruks reached Isengard, thus Pippin and Merry have lost most hope. What happens next? Torture, blood, you get it. I know, I suck at summaries.
1. Saruman

Pippin and Merry were sleeping when the uruks reached Isengard. They were hurled into a room that had stacks of unused parchment lying in each corner and by the walls. Merry awoke abruptly when hitting the ground, but Pippin had his head knocked hardly into the floor, thus remained unconscious.

A few hours later, possibly 4 or 5, an orc came into the room and brought some food for the captives. Merry was awake staring at his knees, rocking a little bit, and Pippin was still lying the way he hit the ground hours previously. The orc threw bread at Merry, and tried to wake Pippin as well. He kicked into him harshly, but he just groaned and did not open his eyes. Then the orc took up the small hobbit and threw him heavily into the ground. Pippin's eyes flew open. The orc tossed another piece of bread at him. Neither of the hobbits were able to speak to each other, since both were still in shock, so they just ate the bread they had received.

--------------

Later Saruman called to his servants that he wanted to see the Halflings.

An orc and an uruk hai came to collect the hobbits, still tightly bound by cords. The hobbits heard the last word from their conversation. "I tell yah, Nukshet, he won't let us have them," the uruk hai said glumly and angrily. The orc looked menacingly at the Halflings.

They were brought to Saruman, only hearing his servants talking in orcish loudly.

"So..." Saruman began. "So, I would like you to tell me... where is the Ring." Saruman walked a while, looking as if he were deep in thought. He looked at the hobbits. "You. Tell me," he said pointedly and harshly to Merry.

"I won't say anything. ANYTHING that can help you," Merry replied back angrily.

Saruman stared at Merry for a few second, then away, and licked his own dry lips. He stopped and looked at Pippin instead. "You," the wizard said, in a higher and louder voice this time.

Pippin only gazed at him, not saying a word. Saruman went over to him, and squeezed his arm, his long nails cut into his skin almost as much as the orcs' had. "I asked a question," Saruman said through gritted teeth.

Pippin had cried out in pain, and kicked at Saruman to let go. Merry almost jumped onto Saruman, but managed to restrain himself. Suddenly one of the kicks turned quite hard, making Saruman suddenly let go and back away a little.

He looked threateningly at Pippin. "You'll be sorry," he hissed.

Merry watched helplessly at the terrified Pippin, and as Saruman ordered the orc to take Merry out.

-----------------

The orc, Nukshet, was nearing the room where the hobbits had previously been kept in, when Merry heard a scream. He flinched.

Another orc came along the corridor, and started yelling and roaring with Nukshet in orcish. He hadn't seemed to even realise that Merry was there, so he pressed himself to the wall. The orc suddenly stabbed Nukshet with a dagger, and he fell back with a faint groan, the weapon still sticking out of his stomach. Merry remained where he was, as he watched the orc walk on.

Merry saw his chance, and he didn't hesitate.


	2. Merry's Escape

A/N: Oops, forgot to put disclaimer.

I DON'T OWN THE CHARACTERS.

Saruman pointed his staff at Pippin, muttering a few words under his breath.

Pippin suddenly felt excruciating pain, and screamed. It stopped, and Pippin lay gasping on the ground.

"Where is the ring?!" demanded Saruman furiously, picking Pippin up from the floor.

"I ... won't... tell you," the small hobbit said in a small voice.

Saruman slapped him. Peregrin, caught by surprise at the sudden strike, landed flat on his face.

Saruman was just looking at him for several minutes, examining his form. He saw the cut near his ankle, which was produced by the whip as it curled around his leg, when he dropped his brooch. The wizard smirked.

An Uruk-hai came into the room. He whispered something in Saruman's ear.

"WHAT?!" Saruman bellowed, boiling with rage. "ESCAPED? HOW? SPEAK!"

- - - - - - - - -

Merry, with his bonds cut, the dagger in his hand, started going down the staircase from which he had emerged with the now-dead orc. He heard footsteps behind him, and started to walk more quickly, more aware of his surroundings. If he was caught again, all hopes of him and Pippin escape would vanish. He had to find the room Pippin was in, then wait until he is ordered to be taken away by an orc or uruk, attack it, and with Pippin, find some way out of this place. That was his best plan.

- - - - - - - - -

"Search the small one," Saruman ordered to an orc in the room, who had been cackling quietly. Then he turned to the uruk, "Lead me there."

So the orc searched him, he checked in his pockets, he took away Pippin's cloak, jacket, scarf and shirt, looking through them thoroughly. However, he didn't give them back to the hobbit. Pippin was standing there, shivering, not knowing what to do, wanting to be with Merry. Not just Merry, but everyone – Frodo, Sam, Strider, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and Boromir. Gandalf and Boromir... who would never return.

Pippin was standing there for what seemed hours, days and weeks, his eyes tearing.

Saruman returned. "Seems like your little friend is taking a trip around the Orthanc tower," he said, without the slightest emotion showing. He walked towards the Halfling, and then bent forward to him. "But not for much longer," he said, his teeth clenched.

The wizard called for a group of uruks. He ordered them to make two pairs of small shackles, and the orc who had searched Pippin to take him away to a cell, and tie his hands to the wall. So he did, and Pippin couldn't do anything but wait and wait, until sleep took him.

He dreamt of sitting peacefully in the Shire with Merry, and then everything started to burn. Someone took hold of his arm, and started to drag him away from Merry. His cousin just sat there, looking at him with sorry eyes. Pippin awoke with a small gasp.


	3. Food and Whips

Merry tried to open many doors that he found unlocked. A lot were empty, but some did have various items in it; the second door he tried had three big black chests in it, he found a few filled with weapons, and Merry was desperately feeling helpless until he found a room filled with loaves of bread. He was hungry, he had hardly ate anything for the past few days, since he had become captive. He ate a good fill, until he felt that he was full, which surprised himself. He hid in that very room, and decided to get some sleep before continuing.

- - - - - - - - -

Pippin awoke with a gasp. He hung there for hours, staring into space, unmoving, unthinking. An uruk-hai entered and untied him. Pippin fell to the ground, and the uruk yanked him up by the hair, and pulled him along by the arm, squeezing it very tightly. Pippin restrained his tears.

He was brought the same room where he had been before. Saruman was sitting in an armchair, with two uruks at his side. Pippin recognized one of them immediately: Uglúk. Both of the uruk-hai had a whip in their hand, which the hobbit eyed carefully.

"Halfling," Saruman said. "I was patient for a day. Either you tell me the whereabouts of the Ring, or..." his eyes trailed to uruks on his side.

He ordered Uglúk to chain Pippin to the wall. Pippin struggled viciously, but he only got a taste of the whip for that. He screamed.

"Where is it?" Saruman questioned, his eyes hard, looking at the hobbit.

"I- I don't know," Pippin replied, shivering as he was forced to lean on the cold walls.

Saruman nodded at the uruks. Both of their whips hit the small hobbit, who screamed again in pain, only louder this time.

"Both you and I know perfectly well that you know where the Ring is!" shouted the wizard in fury. He looked at the other uruk and pointed to Pippin.

Pippin was punched and kicked, as he groaned at each strike. The uruk stopped, and stepped aside. Pippin was breathing heavily, and then he threw up.

"You can't take much, can you, then?" asked Saruman with a sly smile. He nodded to the uruks again, and they grinned as they lifted the whips again, ready to strike.

- - - - - - - - -

Merry woke up to a terrible scream. It sounded louder than it had last time, indicating that he was closer to the room now. He took a big bite out of a loaf and took off. He had to find Pippin quickly. He heard his cousin scream again. Merry winced, tears running down his face. He looked out at the corridor. No one was coming. He couldn't hear any footsteps, and he checked the doors to see which opened to the staircase. He couldn't be more than a floor or two away from where Pippin was... could he?

- - - - - - - - -

Pippin's next days went by the very same routine – Saruman's questions, whips, some beatings, and occasionally the wizard pointing his staff on him, muttering words, and then pain. On the fourth day, he was barely able to keep conscious. If he passed out, he knew he'd suffer worse. He hadn't ate in days, and they had only given him a drink two days previously. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer.


	4. No Use

Pippin had received water that morning, but he could barely keep conscious. His head was swimming, his scars aching terribly, and he had lost a fair amount of blood. Saruman saw that the hobbit was no use at all. He called for some of his servants.

"Take him away," he ordered. The uruks waited, because they saw he wasn't finished yet. "You may do what you please with him. I have no use for him. BUT-" he said, a little louder, before his servants got too excited, "do NOT kill him. I may find something... interesting, and useful to do with him yet."

The uruk-hai nodded solemnly, yet as they turned dragging Pippin along by his tight shackles, they wore evil, malicious grins.

- - - - - - - - -

Merry went down and down the stairs, which was terribly long. He had probably went five floors worth of stairs, when he saw a door to the staircase. He went and checked unlocked doors, but there was no trace of Pippin anywhere. He went into a room with shelves of empty jars, everything covered in dust. He bumped into a shelf by accident, and had only enough time to look up and see something falling, before it hit his head and he blacked out.

Merry was unconscious for three days. He woke up and found himself in the same room, lying on the ground, with a bump on his head and a few cuts on his palms; he had fallen on the remains of the broken jar.

He was about to open the door of the room to get out when he heard two voices talking in orcish. He tried to listen, even though he couldn't understand. But heard them mention Saruman twice. Merry even stopped breathing to hear better when he realised they had started to use the Common Speech.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he says that it's no use so we can have it!"

"Well, we better get down before we miss all the fun."

"Don' worry, he told us not to kill it yet. Says he's got some kinda plans for it, or somthin'."

Merry stood paralyzed. Where they talking about Pippin? No, they couldn't... could they? Yes. They could. 'Fun'... Merry shuddered, thinking of poor Pip, alone, all alone, and he knew that horrible things were going to happen...

And it was his, Meriadoc Brandybuck's task to rescue him. If he'd die attempting to save his cousin, he would do it.

Merry stopped. They had said Saruman has plans for Pippin. Plans? What plans? Merry didn't even want to try and think of what type of plans would such a sadist wizard have for the young hobbit. Tears rolled down Merry's face.

And that is why I must try, he thought to himself. That is why I must save him.

Merry heard thunder outside, and the uruks walking away. He had to save Pippin, his dear little Pippin. He just needed a plan. A plan that was basically impossible to complete for a Halfling.

- - - - - - - - -

A/N: Ooh, getting exciting?! Might be... dunno, it's your decision really. Haha. Will post the next chapter tomorrow probably.


	5. Thoughts

A/N: The first Pippin-only chapter! *cheer*

- - - - - - - - - -

The uruk-hai were dragging Pippin along, attempting a more forceful pull each time the small hobbit slowed down. Eventually, he collapsed to the ground. He couldn't take any more. The uruks tried to pull him to his feet, but when they saw he wasn't reacting at all, they just let him lie there on the ground, while they started a conversation.

Peregrin slowly opened his eyes. He saw some light. It came from a window. An open window was on the wall. It wasn't a ray of the sunshine but the light came from the grey-white clouds. Amidst all the darkness that had surrounded him, Pippin's heart cleared of some pain, as it lit a small, yet affecting, candle inside his body.

He suddenly had a wild thought. What if he jumped out? He'd have had preferred to do that stay a minute longer in this dark, damp, horrid rotten place. He'd fly and fly through the wind, until the fall would its fatal blow. It would be better than the whips, the kicks, the punches, the bruises, the cuts, and the pain. A quick strike to end it all would be most welcome - to end the suffering, the pain, physical and emotional.

Pippin still never could get it out of his head; it was his fault that Gandalf had died, and partly his fault that Boromir died. Emotional wounds are the deepest. Because knowing that it is your fault someone died, it is even harder to accept their passing.

He just had to jump. But he couldn't. He felt that there wasn't enough power left in his limbs to jump. Especially he couldn't jump, owing to the fact that he couldn't stand. If you can't even stand up, how can you jump? The small thoughts passed through Pippin's head in a matter of a few seconds.

There was another reason why he couldn't jump. What would happen to Merry? He can't just leave the living without knowing what is happening to Merry. Pippin could remember, yet hardly anymore, that Saruman said something about not knowing the whereabouts of Merry, that he escaped. He said something like that, anyways. He couldn't have been hallucinating. Could he? No.

All the unanswered questions he had asked throughout his short life came flooding into his head. All those little bits of life swamped his mind. The faces and voices didn't seem to want to come though.

Pippin lay there.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: If this chapter is boring, then it is because while I wrote this, I was VERY bored.


	6. Lower

A/N: Guys, from now on, I won't post more unless I get reviews. At least one review per 2-3 chappies.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Merry went out the door; he had to get out and start further lower – after-all the orc had said 'We'd better get down'. So Merry had to go down – which meant having to search for a staircase again. He sighed, putting his fingers over the scar on his forehead that he had gotten about a week before.

Merry had only opened three doors when he had found the staircase. But he had found something else too. As he had opened the door a large uruk was right in front of him. He grabbed him. The hobbit fought savagely, but he was no match for the uruk. He knocked Merry on the head, who collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Sharkey said we can have him?" The uruk-hai were excited.

"Yeah. Some fun," one of them replied with a grimace.

"But we can't kill it, not yet!" that did not really please the uruks, but they were still excited.

"Why not?!" cried another.

"Said he's got some plans for it or something... "

Pippin rolled over a little and saw some of the uruk-hai approaching him. He jerked into sitting position and started crawling backwards. Some of them laughed. Some were coming from behind him however. They kicked him in the ribs and in the stomach. They punched his face. They beat him – hard. He was just groaning into pain, rolling from side to side.

"This boring," one of them said.

"Make it scream!" an uruk shouted.

Uglúk took out his whip. Pippin moaned, trying to get up, but he couldn't. He bit his lip hard, not to scream, as the whip hit his back, which already completely red from the wounds caused by the whip. Uglúk hit him again; this time Pippin couldn't hold it back.

"Let's do something else!"

A different uruk grabbed Pippin by the ankles and lifted him up. The hobbit was thrashing violently in his grasp.

"Stop it!" the uruk roared. He lifted Pippin beside a fire. Quite close to it. "Stop it or I'll let you drop into this!"

Pippin lifted his head sideways so his hair couldn't catch fire. However, his arm got a little burn, and the skin turned a little shiny. The uruk now took him by the chin, his fingers on his cheeks, not squeezing his, leaving the hobbit free to breathe.

"Now, don't try to do anything we don't like and you know that," he growled into Pippin's face, as he whimpered for the nails where cutting into his cheek.

"Stop whining, maggot!" and with that, the uruk threw him on the ground, and Pippin was knocked out as his head hit the ground.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Aaargh! Who will save Pip now that Merry's captured again? X_X

So REVIEW and then I'll CONTINUE. Unless that, I'm not going to continue this.


	7. Choices

Merry came back to consciousness in cell. He moaned at his failure, and banged his fists into the ground, which were tied in bonds again. He was sitting there, his head hanging for a good while.

"Woken up, have we?" voice came as the door creaked open. It was Gríma Wormtongue. "After two days, about time. Pardon for the bonds, but the shackles we had for you had to be used...do not worry, you will receive some newer ones soon enough."

Merry glowered at him.

"My master wants to see you," the man said. "So you either be quiet and walk meekly or I shall drag you by your hair." Merry, hopeless, walked after Gríma who had him by his arm.

It wasn't the same room as where Merry had been before when they arrived, yet looked very similar, the ceiling not as high.

Saruman was standing in the middle of the room like a proud god. "Ah yes. Halfling," he said carelessly, looking at Merry. "Have you changed your mind about giving me information?"

Merry hesitated a little before saying "No."

"Perhaps you'd like to meet your friend again before telling me?" Saruman asked with a sly smile. He called for his servants

- - - - - - - - - - -

The uruk-hai were most disgruntled and unsatisfied when Saruman ordered to have the hobbit brought up again.

- - - - - - - - - - -

A small body was dumped on the floor, the sound of metal clinking.

"P-p-Pippin?!" cried Merry with a gasp.

The small form groaned. "Merry?" he managed to wheeze, before he coughed up some blood.

Pippin was covered in bruises, cuts, his back almost completely red and brown from the whip lashes, there was a burn mark on his arm, a gash on his chest which was bare. His breaches were torn and filthy, one of his wrists was red and swollen, and there was a purple shadow behind his left eye.

This couldn't be Pippin... not his, Merry's, little Pippin. But it was.

The wizard seemed satisfied, waiting for Merry's bursy of outrage and fury, which came a few seconds after.

"YOU SADISTIC ANIMAL! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS-" Merry choked on his tears.

"Now, here is my offer," Saruman said. "You have three choices – both of you get carried to Mordor, which I promise would be far more unpleasant than here; you simply tell me where the Ring is, and you'll both be free to go; or watch your little friend here be tortured to death."

Merry almost thought that his heart would stop.

"You have 12 hours to decide." Saruman ordered his servants to take them away.

- - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Mwuhahaha. None of those choices seem very pleasant. But dw, something else will happen. It's going to be blamed on Gríma ;]


	8. Everything will come

A/N: I haven't posted more to this story, for like, a month! But The Real Fellowship is so much more fun to write. GaGa-bashing... anywho, I wrote about half this a good while ago, when I was still updating, but I never finished, so I'm finishing it now!

!Disclaimer!: I do NOT own the little "song" in this. It's a little section from 'This is not an Exit' by Beecake. While I wrote this, I was listening to that song, and well, it fit in perfectly!

* * *

Pippin's head was in Merry's lap, the older hobbit stroking his sleeping cousin's curls. At first Merry was distracting by Pippin's wounds, but began to notice how skinny he had become. He had seen Pippin getting thinner as they went on and on, on the quest, but in the past days, or week or weeks, only having food about twice, saw that he was basically starved. He could clearly see his ribs and other bones sticking out.

As Merry stroked his hair, he jerked up as he heard loud noises coming from somewhere outside. Merry had been too busy to realise that there was a window to the cell. Merry carefully lifted Pippin's head from his lap, and set it on the ground, moving towards the window.

The Ents were wrecking havoc around the borders of Isengard.

Yet they were still trapped. And Merry still had the terrible burden of having to choose for the fate of his cousin and himself. Even the whole of Middle-Earth if he told where the Ring was.

"Merry," mumbled Pippin softly. Merry turned around, relieved that his cousin was awake again.

"Merry, it's sore," Pippin put his hand somewhere between his stomach and chest. Merry went over the younger hobbit, and checked what was wrong. Merry stroked his hand across, barely touching Pippin's skin, in case it hurt too much.

"I don't know what it could be," Merry told him sorrowfully. "I do not know much about healing either, Pip."

Merry would have given Pippin his waistcoat to put on; the least he needed was to get one of his wounds infected. But it looked Pippin had fever, his skin became hot. It needed to cool down. But Merry put his waistcoat on the ground for Pippin to lie on.

Merry then remembered – he had put some bread aside! It was in the pocket of his waistcoat. He'll give it to Pip – for how long had his cousin not eaten?

So Merry fetched the bread from the pocket. "Pip, I am sure you are hungry...?" he asked uncertainly.

Pippin nodded. "A..." he paused a little, "a- a bit."

"Pippin you haven't eaten for like, a week!" cried out Merry, feeling worried. A bit hungry? A BIT hungry?!

Merry sank down, covered his both his eyes with each index and middle-finger, listening to Pippin chewing softly. His brain was playing him a song.

All is nothing...

Everything is one...

Dream your dreams...

And know everything will come.

::Everything will come?::, Merry thought. ::Will help come? Doesn't look like it::

Everything will come...

"It will be alright Pip," Merry said. "Everything will come- help will come."


End file.
